Solar Orbiter

Solar Orbiter is a space probe on a mission to learn more about the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles the Sun blows out across the entire solar system. During its mission, the space probe will be orbiting the Sun on an eccentric, elliptical orbit, occasionally passing by Venus, in order to capture the closest images of the Sun to date. When the space probe comes between the Sun and Mercury, it will be exposed to sunlight 13 times more intense than what we feel on Earth. Getting up close to the Sun will allow Solar Orbiter to observe the surface of the Sun, including its polar regions which haven’t been seen before. The space probe aims to also learn more about the solar wind, the stream of highly ionized gas the Sun blows out.